Imperial Mercantile, Inc.

Description: A modern general store, coffee stop, and cider/wine bar housed inside the renovated old Imperial Theater in downtown Kings Mountain, with apartments above and a curated retail floor below. The space blends an Anthropologie-meets-Cracker-Barrel aesthetic with serious local-goods game: handmade pottery, candles, kitchenware, drinkware, dish towels with cute sayings, spices, gifts, home decor, plus a coffee, tea, wine, and cider counter that turns the back of the store into a casual hangout.

Visitors come for the merchandise but linger for the drinks, with the cider rotation in particular getting called out on the store's own Instagram. The owners (the Stone family, who moved to Kings Mountain from Gaston County about five years before opening) intentionally designed the place as a downtown anchor and a reason to slow down on Mountain Street rather than just pass through.